Wednesday, 31 July 2013

A change of social attitude and mindset is required for inclusive growth in India

Sick children in Patna hospital

From a PR point of view, the release of Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen’s
new book An Uncertain Glorycouldn’t have been timelier.
With Indian elections less than a year away, and a gloomy economic climate
looming over, the book is going to stimulate intellectual debates and a‘reasoned
public engagement’ on India’s socio –economic policies.

The book is already being invoked: last week Meghnad Desai writing for
The Sunday Express cited the authors, and endorsed (from what I gather
from reading the first couple of chapters of the book) that the story of Indian
growth has been elitist and the vast majority of the population hasn’t
benefited from India’s 20 years of economic growth.

Meghnad Desai also makes a very valid point: the Indian society has no
sense of “equality of respect”, and asserts that social equality is
needed for inclusive growth.

How do you achieve social equality in India? Can concerted government
policies alone bring in social equality? The answer is 'no'. There has to
be first a social acceptance for social equality. Whilst it is true that one of
the primary reasons for India’s lack of social and physical infrastructure, and
high levels of poverty is bad governance and corruption, but on the other hand,
India’s highly conscious caste and class based society, i.e. we the people of
India are equally responsible for the gross deprivation of a vast majority of
India’s population.

Class and caste divisions

Let’s consider the following:

Since centuries, casteism and economic inequality have created a
master- slave relation in India, with the poor serving the rich and the
middle class. By and large most Indians don’t want this social status quo
to change. How many urban educated Indians actually allow their maids and
domestic help to eat with them on same table and sit on the same sofa? What do
we do for the welfare of the families of our maids, gardeners, security guards
and drivers? Should this sector not be formalized to give them a sense of
dignity and some rights for their professions?

Upward mobility in India is a race. Even when people from the
economically weak section make it to the ranks of middle class and above, in
most cases, they themselves become indifferent to he plight of others.
The attitude of indifference coupled with extreme arrogance of the novae-rich
reinforces social inequality with much more vengeance and force.

We lack the dignity of labour. Since most upper class
Indians grow up believing that some types of work are for people who are poor
and illiterate, when someone from that background makes it big, we immediately
question their social credentials.

In terms of education, compare a student from a rural government
school and a well to do private school. The difference in quality of education
and even the very basic facilities are so huge that the race is decided even
before it is run. It is not that the government is not spending on education,
but again the people running the show don’t want that the schools of the
poor are at par with the well to do.

In Bihar, where the death of 20 children after eating mid-day meal
could have been averted if the people in charge had systematically monitored
the meals or even a simplest protocol in regard to the management of food by
headmistress was followed.

Finally, there is always a structural relation between poverty,
illiteracy and politics. Keeping people poor and illiterate serves the purpose
of the politicians, as it is easy to fool the poor.

The list could go on, but the point is that social inclusion in India
requires a change of mindset of the people, and unless
we ourselves open up and take ownership of our duties, any
efforts for inclusive growth will be an illusion.

For the harsh reality is that believe it or not
we are one of the most racist society on the planet in more than one ways. This
is unfortunate and is against the spirit of the constitution of the
world's largest democracy.

Sunday, 14 July 2013

Social media
seems to be have caught up the imagination of political leaders in India, and, like
everything else in Indian politics, it has sparked a new controversy.

Indian media
reports say that Indian politicians are ‘faking’ it online. A news report on
NDTV- an English national news channel- says that number of ‘likes’ on the
Facebook page of the Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has suddenly doubled
in just a month (216049 likes). Interestingly, the report says the most number
of ‘likes’ have been clicked not in his home state, or in India, but in
Istanbul! India’s opposition party the BJP has accused the Congress chief
minster of buying the ‘likes’.

The use of
social media by political parties and governments are increasingly becoming popular
across the world. The Chilean government was one of the first to broadcast
press releases on Twitter. The US State Department, for example, actively
engages with its audience by organizing a series on events on its Facebook
page. It allows the audience to directly interact with key figures in the US
political circle.

Following
Mr. Kerry’s visit to India, the US Department of State organized a Facebook
event titled “India and America: A Defining Partnership of the 21st
Century”, where Ambassador Robert O Blake directly took questions from the
audience all over the world. It was an example of reaching out and directly
engaging with the most important stakeholder “the people”. This is probably one of the major advantages
of using social media: to be able to interact directly with the audience.

In India,
the Gujarat’s chief minister, Narendra Modi has been on the forefront of integrating
various digital media tools. His dynamic website www.narendamodi.in is rich in content, and
his social engagements and agendas are actively posted on Facebook and Twitter.
His public speeches are instantly put on YouTube.

Social media
tools are a great way of communicating with the public. It obviates the
traditional modes of communication, and the public, in turn, can directly
interact with their leader.

If a
person’s query is responded to on social media platform, it can help create a favorable
image for the party and of the
politician. The follower feels
acknowledged and derives satisfaction.

Managing digital reputation

Imagine a
situation where a, voter is undecided whom to vote for. He might simply Google
the name of the leader to make up his mind based on the content the search
result generates. It can simply influence his decision. However, in absolute terms more Facebook 'like' doesn't mean more votes!

Can the
search result be managed, manipulated or controlled? Yes, to a certain degree
by putting a massive content on the website, blog and on other social media
platforms. Google is more likely to toss
up information on the top of a page if the ‘subject’ or the ‘topic’ is invariably
linked to social media sites.

The manner
in which Google optimization works, it is likely that the content on Facebook,
Twitter, blog or website will show up on the top of a page. In public
relations, the strategy adopted for maintaining such an outcome is called
digital reputation management.

Many
politicians and corporates hire PR firms both in India and abroad to manage
their digital reputation. Flooding the internet with positive information on a topic or a person and then maximizing
it with ‘hits’ can push existing
negative reports on the back pages of a Google search.

For example, if you type ‘Narendra Modi’, you
are likely to notice that his website will appear above a popular news website
that carries his name on that day. His
Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube will also be ranked amongst the top
ten pages. A general search on Modi will
not show anything that is negative about him. It is precisely for this reason
the politicians like to have more followers on their Facebook and Twitter
accounts.

Sometimes, smart PR companies dispatch hundreds of not very relevant press releases to
smaller targeted news organizations. Once these smaller organizations publish
the release online, it can be used as a reference to make a Wikipedia entry-
another website that Google loves. (In Wikipedia every sentence requires
reference.)

In India,
the use of the Internet and smart phones are growing phenomenally. Creative
digital videos and smart management of social media tools will soon become an
important tool for campaigning. If done
wisely, it will have a decisive say in the over outcome of elections results in
the years to come. Let the cyber war begin!